


Friends & Lovers

by NiSt3



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Boarding School, F/M, Minor Character Death, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, POV Hermione Granger, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:09:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28194483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiSt3/pseuds/NiSt3
Summary: In third year, Hermione becomes friends with Susan, Daphne and Padma.  They are confidantes as they progress through school and the world becomes more hostile to her.  An alternate look at their time in Hogwarts and beyond.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Seamus Finnegan, minor - Hermione Granger/Cormac McLaggen, minor - Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum
Comments: 36
Kudos: 109





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick note - they are teenagers at a boarding school. There will be sex. Some of them may seem out of character.  
> This was supposed to be short and evolved to five chapters.

Third Year

It starts in third year. Their friendship. Ancient Runes is one of the electives that can be taken that year. The class was smaller, so all four houses were together. There was to be a large group project that they would work on throughout the year. When the rest of the class splits off into groups, there are four students left.

And so Susan Bones, Hermione Granger, Daphne Greengrass and Padma Patil become the last group.

They are all in different houses, with their own friend groups so it takes Hermione a while to realize that they are friends. They meet every Tuesday evening after dinner in a study room they have booked in the library for the remainder of the year. It had been Padma to think of booking it for the full year.

Hermione has other friends obviously, Harry and Ron being closest to her, but the others in her house have really embraced her in the last couple of years. It is different than the girls and boys from her muggle school and in her neighbourhood. When she saw Amy over the summer, she was constantly lying about Hogwarts to hide the magic. And she hated that.

But Ron is angry with her. He says Crookshanks has eaten Scabbers so is not speaking with her. Harry is trying to remain neutral but he and Ron share a dorm so he is automatically with him more than her.

When she gets to the study room, she is still furiously wiping at her eyes from Ron snapping at her in the common room. The three other girls are already there as she starts to unload her books.

“Hermione are you all right?” Susan asks.

She looks up from her bag to see all three girls looking at her with concern. It is on the tip of her tongue to say she is fine, but instead “Ron thinks my cat killed his rat,” comes out instead.

Padma closes the textbook in front of her, folding her hands on top of it. “But that’s what cats do. Perhaps he should have taken better care of his rat then.”

“Yes,” Daphne agrees, following suit and closing her textbook as well. “Did he not keep it in a secure enclosure?” Hermione shook her head. “Then how is his irresponsibility your fault?”

She looks around at them, comforting and reassuring her, but more importantly being there for her, and realizes that they are friends. She wonders if the others have already realized it, or if, like her, they are just coming to the realization too.

But after that first day, where they had reassured Hermione that it was Ron and not her, they begin to talk of other things. When Michael Corner told Padma that it was unfortunate that Gryffindor got the cooler twin, they, very carefully since Parvati was her sister after all, told her Michael was mistaken. And that as four of them were in the top ten students in their year, they would know.

Eventually, they only talk Ancient Runes for half of their study session. The rest they talk of other topics. Sometimes it is other school classes, especially if there was a particularly difficult class that week, but most of the time, it is non-school related.

Daphne tells them that she cannot stand half the students in her house. Susan that she felt she wouldn’t be able to measure up to her Auntie. Padma confesses that she feels like her sister is replacing her with Lavender. And Hermione tells them of the fear she had of doing magic as a child before she knew what it was.

When Padma tells them that she kissed Seamus Finnegan, she realizes that not only does she have friends, but that she has girlfriends at school. Hermione had previously snogged two of the muggle boys in her neighbourhood, during a large game of spin-the-bottle she had attended with Amy.

“It wasn’t that pleasant,” Padma says, wrinkling her nose. “It felt like he was trying to eat my face. Why do people enjoy that?”

Hermione nodded. Her experiences had been similar.

It is at the end of the year when they ask Hermione if she is okay, not if she really fought a werewolf or what happened with Buckbeak or to Ron, but if she is okay, that she knows she truly values their friendship.

Although Daphne does ask. “Did you really hit Draco?” Hermione nods. “That’s fucking brilliant!”

Fourth Year

Her first night home that summer, Amy is at her door, asking if she wants to come to a party. Her parents encourage her to go, because they want her to maintain her old friendships, but it is just so hard. But then Amy asks about her friends on the walk there, and Hermione finds herself telling her about Susan, Daphne and Padma.

The kids in her neighbourhood have progressed to playing seven minutes in heaven. Hermione doesn’t even know the name of the boy who spins the bottle that lands on her. His hands grab her bum when they snog and she doesn’t find it entirely unpleasant.

As the summer progresses, she meets Amy’s friends from school. One of them is dating an older boy who drives. So on her last week before she is going to the Weasley’s for the Quidditch World Cup, she attends a party that has older students with Amy and her friend.

There is a keg and Hermione is nothing if not curious so when she is handed a cup, she drinks it. Her nose wrinkles and the boy that handed it to her laughs. 

“Doesn’t help that it’s the cheap stuff,” he says.

He grabs her hand and leads her to a table in the kitchen where he mixes her a drink that tastes sweet. He is standing closer to her, his hand moving along her arm. Hermione looks at him. He is older, probably around seventeen and rather cute. She sees Amy shoot her a grin.

His snogging technique is infinitely better than any of the other boys she has snogged this summer during their games. They are outside by one of the outdoor lounges. The lounge is in a private area of the backyard, where they can see the house, but a tree provides privacy for them. She is not stupid, so she knows that the lounge has been strategically placed there for that purpose.

But he sucks gently at her neck and tugs her to straddle his lap. He places two hands on her bum and drags her against him and she feels a hardness underneath her jeans. The knowledge makes her shiver. Amy comes to find her not too long after, but by that point, he had moved a hand up her shirt and she had been rocking against him, enjoying the way he would moan. The power she felt was exhilarating.

She doesn’t seem him again of course. She goes to the Quidditch World Cup where the reality of being a target for her blood is slammed home to her. Draco Malfoy is sneering at her and she remembers punching him in the face the previous year and how fantastic it had been.

It is nice to see her boys of course, and Ginny and the rest of the Weasley’s, but the moment she is waiting for is the first Tuesday of the year. At the end of third year, they had agreed to remain a group for fourth year as well. Hermione hopes that they will be there even though no project has started yet.

She visibly relaxes when she sees Daphne and Susan already sitting in there. Padma comes along a few minutes after Hermione.

“Older boys know how to snog much better,” she says when all of them are there.

“You sound like you had an interesting summer,” Daphne smiles. “Do tell.”

Hermione tells them of the older boy at the party. She realizes as she is talking that none of them brought a textbook.

The Tri-Wizard Tournament and the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons bring possibilities as they discuss future snogging sessions. Susan snogged Jacob Fawley, a fifth-year Hufflepuff boy, while Daphne had snogged Blaise Zabini.

When Harry’s name was called from the goblet, Susan gives her the cold shoulder for a week. It hurts, because she knows that Harry did not put his name in and someone is doing this to him. But yet she understands Susan’s loyalty to Cedric Diggory.

“Don’t worry,” Padma says after Susan has left the room in a huff. “She’ll come around.”

Daphne nods in agreement.

Susan does, though the two of them do their best not to mention either Harry or Cedric to each other.

Viktor Krum takes to following her around in the library. She is not sure what to think. He is probably the same age as the boy from the summer. But he just looks so much older. Plus he is already a Quidditch star. But when she mentions it to the other three, they just tell her to go for it, so when he asks her to the Yule Ball she agrees.

Daphne ends up going with Blaise. Susan with Justin Finch-Fletchley. And Padma with Ron. Which she finds odd. Padma is one of the prettiest girls in their year, how did she not have a date yet?

She shrugs. “Terry told me he just assumed I already had one. So did Anthony.”

“Boys are dumb,” Daphne states.

Ron and Harry are horrible dates for both Padma and Parvati, plus Ron is being a bit of a prat to her, so she does not feel bad when she sees Padma snogging a Beauxbatons boy.

Hermione did find time to snog Viktor before going back up to their dorms. He was so much taller than her, it felt like he was surrounding her when he kissed. But much like her experience that summer, he did know how to snog. She felt breathless after. Her skin feeling on fire from where his hands traced her.

“I let Blaise go up my dress with his hand,” Daphne says at their first Tuesday after the ball. All of them staying at Hogwarts much like most of the other students. “It was like he thought it was a button.”

Susan spits out her drink. “It didn’t do it for you?”

“No. I pushed him away then went back to my room to finish myself.”

Hermione spends New Years with Viktor. They were with the rest of the students in the Great Hall for most of the night but sneak back to his private room on board the ship. She lets him take off her jumper. He pushes down her bra and she is amazed at how good his mouth feels on her breast.

They are lying on his bed and when he moves on top of her, both of them still wearing pants, she feels hardness and rocks into it. With each groan she feels heady and powerful. Curiosity eventually gets the better of her and she reaches a hand down.

“I touched Viktor’s penis,” she announces the next day to them.

All three of them stare at her, Susan in mid-bite with a bag of crisps. She swallows it down. “What was it like?”

She ponders the question. “Hard, but like the skin was soft. A little odd,” she says thinking of the way that Viktor had moaned and looked at her with wide eyes. “Messy.”

Daphne snorts. “Odd and messy. That seems like it could just be the general catch-all for all boys.”

Of course, after Viktor had slid his hand in her pants, she had told them all about that as well. Based on Daphne’s statement about Blaise, she is reasonably sure that Viktor had done this before. Hermione is okay with that knowledge since she comes on his fingers with a scream muffled by the hand he held over her mouth.

“I’m beginning to think Hermione’s older boy theory has merit,” Padma says. “And really, in the library?”

Since it’s Padma, she tests the theory the first week in February with the boy from Beauxbatons. She arrives disappointed to the next session. “He just kept poking at it.”

After the second task, Hermione gives her first blowjob. She knows she was never in any real danger, but it had still felt nice to be wanted. And he was so sweet to her. Viktor had snuck her into his room again, his headmaster really didn’t like her.

She was straddling him on his bed. It wasn’t a decision she had thought about a lot in advance, but as she pulls down his pants, she decides right then. His hips actually buck off the bed. She gags. But then he apologizes so she tries again. She decides it’s not too bad but she doesn’t like the taste.

“Let me return favour,” Viktor mumbles, rolling her over and tugs her pants down.

It takes her a moment to get it but the moment his tongue touches her, her hips buck up. He doesn’t mind though and soon she is writhing and screaming and he just keeps going.

“Girls,” she says, sliding into her seat. “Oral sex is the way to go. Forget this finger nonsense.”

“Really?” Daphne looks disappointed. “Blaise just got the fingers figured out last night. I’m not sure if he’ll put his tongue there. From what I hear from the older girls, most boys don’t do that.”  
  


Unless they have a project, test or essay coming up, they spend their sessions talking, not even bothering to pretend by bringing out their textbooks sometimes.

The end of the year is in a couple months, Hermione helps Harry and Ron get ready for their end of year tests, while making sure Harry prepares for the Third Task. She still makes sure to spend time with Viktor and his tongue that makes her toes curl.

Daphne tells them that Blaise flat out refused to use his tongue on her. “But yet he wanted me to go down on him,” she sounds disgusted, huffing and crossing her arms over her chest.

Padma confirms this the next week by telling them student from Beaubaxtans was the same. “Though, I actually did do it first and then he refused,” she grimaces. “It’s not like he tasted pleasant.”

The four of them agree that it only makes sense to receive oral sex first before reciprocating then. Just to make sure that the boy will do it. Both Daphne and Padma drop Blaise and the boy from Beauxbatons respectively.

Two weeks before the Third Task, Hermione lets her legs fall open as Viktor lies between them. And then he pushes inside her. It is odd at first. He is just everywhere it seems and she grips her nails into his shoulders. He waits for her to adjust then starts moving. It doesn’t make her scream but it is pleasant.

“I had sex with Viktor.”

“What was it like?” Susan asks. Of the four of them, she had remained the most private. They knew she occasionally snogged Justin.

Hermione looks over at Daphne. “Odd and messy,” she says.

All of them laugh. “See, it just accurately describes all boys.”

Then the Third Task happens.

Hermione’s head is spinning. There is so much that has just learned. She is on her way back to the dorms to put the problem in her hands in her bag when someone grabs her arm. Daphne’s face is serious and she pulls her into an unused classroom.

“What’s that?” Daphne asks, pointing to the jar in her hands.

“Rita Skeeter.”

Daphne just nods. The girls know how much trouble that woman has been causing. 

Hermione is about to ask what they’re doing here when Padma walks in with an arm around Susan. Their red-haired friend is bawling. Hermione feels her heart ache even more if possible. They crowd around her, holding each other in a large group hug with Susan at the centre. And Hermione realizes that it is the first time that they have hugged each other.

Eventually Susan’s crying tapers off some, but her face is puffy. The other three also have red eyes. They have all done a lot of crying and will continue to do more.

Susan turns to Hermione. “Was it really you-know-who?”

She nods. And Daphne just sobs. She has previously confessed that being a pureblood in Slytherin who doesn’t believe in blood purity makes you an outcast.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters and relationships are about to diverge wildly from canon.

Fifth Year

The summer is horrid. Amy comes by to see her to ask about her year. Hermione manages to get out she had a boyfriend, she’s not sure how she and Viktor left things, and that a boy at her school died before bursting into tears. She doesn’t attend any parties with Amy that summer, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She rubs Hermione’s back as she cries.

Then Professor Lupin comes to her home. The house that he brings her to is dark and ugly and there is a portrait shouting slurs at her. But the Weasley family greets her with hugs. Even Sirius is there. Ron drags her upstairs, shoving Ginny out of his room.

“I’m worried about Harry,” he says. 

She is too. But they are forbidden to say anything. When Harry does finally arrive he explodes on them. And she gets it, she does. He is feeling hurt and neglected. And after his childhood, it must hurt all the more.

At Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore introduces Umbridge, she will not put an honorific in front of her name, and she seethes.

Hermione is further infuriated to discover that some members of Gryffindor do not believe Harry. She had expected it from Slytherin and maybe a few from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but Gryffindor was supposed to have his back.

So when she’s in the girls dorms and Lavender says something. She just unloads on to her. The blond girl ends up bursting into tears and running into the bathroom. Hermione looks at Parvati like she expects her to defend her best friend.

But Parvati just looks at her. “I believe it.”

“You do?” Hermione is a little shocked. Her two dorm mates are together so much, so similar that she sometimes forgets that they are two different people.

“Yeah,” Parvarti nods. “Padma says she believes you and I believe Padma.”

And just like that, Hermione remembers that the Patil twins, though they may be in different houses, still completely trust the other.

When Ernie Macmillan announces his support of Harry, Susan smiles at her. And she just knows her friends are helping to spread the word in their houses.

Daphne begins to withdraw from them. She doesn’t talk to Hermione in Potions anymore when they are gathering ingredients. And she misses their first session of their year. When they track her down the next day, they pull her into one of the greenhouses.

The blond Slytherin wipes at her eyes where tears have formed. “They’re watching me,” she confesses. “He’s definitely back,” she cries. “Everyone should believe Harry. But Draco told Pansy that they have to keep an eye out for ‘traitors’ in their midst. He knows we’re friends.”

“We’re all in Runes together,” Hermione argues. The other two nod.

Daphne looks at Hermione. “Draco watches you. He can rhyme off your schedule. He knows we haven’t started a project yet in Runes.”

Hermione is stunned. Her mind catches on the first part of what Daphne says. “He what?”

“It drives Pansy up the wall. He cannot remember what class she has, but he tells her that we’re in Runes together.”

“Then we’ll meet somewhere else,” Susan announces. “Where they can’t see us.”

It turns out to be a good decision since Umbridge is also watching everyone connected to Harry. Padma is the one that figures out a classroom that will be unused when they want and sets it up. It helps that both Hermione and Padma are prefects so have a bit of insider knowledge when it comes to somewhere to meet.

After one of the first prefects meetings Padma pulls Hermione aside. Ron stops to wait for her. But Padma just tells him to get going. He scowls at her. The two of them still a little at odds after their Yule Ball date fiasco the year before.

“Daphne’s right,” Padma says when they’re alone. “Malfoy does watch you.”

Hermione tries to see it. But he still just sneers at her. When they post the prefect rotation for the month of October, she and Malfoy are paired together and she has to stop Ron from punching him when he complains about having to sully himself by spending time with her.

Her first rotation with him isn’t as horrible as she thought it would be. He remains quiet which suits her just fine. They find one couple snogging behind a tapestry. She is amused to note that his face is red when they send them on their way.

Umbridge infuriates her and convinces Harry to lead a study group to help teach others. She thinks he is a good teacher and he needs the support. The response is overwhelming. Padma and Susan are one of the first members of course. She wishes that Daphne could join.

But Daphne has been working to get herself back in Pansy’s good books after two years of snubbing her. Though she knew it was coming, the first time that Daphne laughs at an insult that Pansy spits at Hermione, she bawls.

Ron and Harry don’t understand her extreme reaction. “It’s just Parkinson, ‘Mione, you know she’s a cow,” Ron says, drawing her into a hug. Harry pats her on the back.

“I’m sorry!” Daphne sobs the first time they’re in the classroom they’ve been using after the laugh.

And while she does understand, it still hurts, so Hermione cries too. It hurts though she knows her friend was pretending. She was pretending because not only does she need to make them think she believes in blood purity, but she needs to make sure they leave her sister alone too.

When they discover the Room of Requirement, they immediately move their sessions to that room. It sets itself up like the original study room in the library which makes Hermione smile.

The month of October is almost over and Hermione is feeling pretty good with how things have progressed. She has distributed the galleons to the D.A., as well as a knut to herself, Padma, Daphne and Susan so that they can remain in touch. Plus, there was only going to be one more patrol with Malfoy after this.

The snogging couple they come across in an alcove behind a tapestry is Susan and Justin tonight, and they are doing a bit more than snogging. Susan pulls Justin’s head out from under her skirt when she sees them, bringing him to his feet. Hermione raises her eyebrows at her. Susan just shrugs and smiles. Malfoy’s face is red as Justin wipes at his mouth with his hand. She wonders what Malfoy will do when they come across a _shagging_ couple.

“Guess who I saw last night,” she greets Padma and Daphne.

“Justin went down on me,” Susan says before they can guess. “Hermione and Malfoy caught us before I could finish.”

That is how they agree that if they have a date with someone or the opportunity for one, they will coordinate with Padma and Hermione on their prefect schedules. So Padma tells Susan her rotation for tonight and agrees on a spot she will lead Ron away from, since he is her partner for the month.

All of them eventually make use of it in the next month. For the prefect schedule, Padma is paired with Malfoy that month, while Hermione is with Ernie. So Daphne brings Adrian Pucey to an agreed spot during Hermione’s patrols, Padma takes Max Selda. Susan continues with Justin.

And Hermione finds herself snogging Dean Thomas. Dean had sought her out. He was frustrated with Seamus. He wanted to talk to someone who understood. They were slandered for their blood in the magical world and their skin in the muggle world.

He didn’t want to feel alone. And she understands that. Which is how they wind up snogging against the wall. She doesn’t think about how their feet are visible underneath the tapestry until it is pulled back and she finds herself looking at Padma and Malfoy.

Padma’s eyes widen in delight. She tugs her shirt back into place. 

Her eyes turn to Malfoy. His face is red, he looks annoyed, but his eyes are trained at a spot lower than her face. Padma clears her throat and motions to her blouse. Dean notices at the same time. Steps in front of her, so that she is blocked from Malfoy’s view. Hermione does up the couple buttons.

“Granger, didn’t take you for a harlot,” Malfoy sneers then turns on his heel and walks away.

“What an asshole,” Dean says then turns to Hermione. “Shall we go back to the Tower?”

Padma speaks instead. “Actually, I was hoping to speak to Hermione if you don’t mind.”

Dean looks to her and she nods. So he says goodbye and then is gone down the hallway. Padma turns to Hermione with raised eyebrows.

“It wasn’t planned,” Hermione says when asked. 

Padma insists on giving Hermione her schedule for the next week in case she and Dean do snog again. They do two more times, but they go no further than over the clothes, before they both agree to stop. She is pretty sure that Dean is harbouring a crush on Ginny.

Things have been going well with the D.A. and with her classes, even with it being her OWL year. The only downside were the students who still didn’t believe Harry. Her friends are doing well. Ron is on the Quidditch team this year and while she still doesn’t care for Quidditch, she is happy for him.

In early December, Susan is the last one to enter the Room of Requirement. She sets her bag down then looks at the others.

“I had sex with Justin,” she announces, but before they can react she continues, “and I’m gay.”

They are silent for a moment. Daphne is the first to react, reaching a hand out and grips Susan’s. “Thank you for trusting us,” Susan smiles as Hermione and Padma reach to hug her. “Was he really that bad though?”

Susan bursts out laughing and shakes her head. “No, I think I’ve known for a while, I think I liked when he went down on me because he has those curls and I could close my eyes and pretend it was a girl. But I just don’t like boys. I like girls.”

They spend the rest of the evening talking with Susan. She has not told anyone else yet. And wants their help for how to talk to Justin. As they have been together now for months.

In the end, she talks their advice and is honest with Justin. In true Hufflepuff fashion, he supports her, and while a little hurt since he really likes her, tells her he’s there for her if she wants to talk.

“He was just so sweet about it!” Susan cries. “I think it would have been easier if he hated me.”

Padma ends up dropping Max Selda while Daphne continues with Adrian Pucey. Susan tells them she finds Lisa Turpin cute and Padma promises to see what she can find out about her. Hermione finds herself under some enchanted mistletoe with Fred Weasley. She has never laughed harder during a snog.

With the holidays, the war comes roaring back with a vengeance.

When Hermione arrives at Grimmauld, Harry is hiding upstairs. She and Ginny manage to talk him down, but he still wears his guilt all over his face. But Mr Weasley will be fine, they are assured. So they all go to St Mungos on Christmas for a visit.

And oh, Neville. Poor Neville. Her heart just aches for him. How had they never asked him why he lived with his grandmother? 

“I thought his parents died in the war. Like Harry’s. Or mum’s brothers,” Ron says. He is shuffling his feet as they wait for Harry to come outside.

Hermione looks at him. “Your mum’s brothers?” she has never heard Ron mention anything about his family dying.

He just nods though. Looks quickly at her face and then away. “Yeah. Mum had twin brothers, Gideon and Fabian. They were killed when she was pregnant with Ginny.”

She thinks of Mrs Weasley always chasing after Fred and George and wonders if she is able to look at her twin sons without thinking of her twin brothers. She opens her mouth to ask Ron a question, but then Harry comes out and he turns away, obviously done with their conversation.

But the knowledge she has learned about both Neville and the Weasley family gets her wondering. How many other friends of hers had death in their family from the first war?

Sirius, it turns out, is a veritable treasure trove of information. He is lonely, wants to talk and tends to drink a lot of firewhiskey. When she asks him about some of the pictures she sees, he opens right up.

The answer it turns out is almost everyone. Almost everyone that is not a muggleborn has family death from the first war. She learns about Susan’s family and how she had aunts, uncles and cousins all wiped out. 

In January Hermione is paired with Malfoy again for prefect patrols. Daphne comes to her for her schedule and so she leads Malfoy away from the alcove where she knows Daphne is hidden with Adrian Pucey. If he notices that they never check one hallway, he doesn’t say anything.

Then the Azkaban break out occurs.

And everyone knows about those who previously never spoke about it. Susan cries because everyone keeps looking at her and she hates it.

“I don’t even remember them!” she feels bad immediately after saying it, but they know what she means.

Neville refocuses himself in D.A. and surpasses almost everyone else in skill in a matter of days. Hermione wonders if all he has ever needed was the right motivation.

The D.A. increases the number of times they meet and so it happens near the end of January that she is on patrol with Malfoy instead of with the rest of them. 

She sighs, wishing she was with them instead of walking silently beside Malfoy. There are almost no students out either as quite a few of them are in the D.A. and the others are within their common rooms. And she is bored. If she was with Ron, Ernie or Anthony they would at least be chatting. Malfoy is utterly silent.

The staircase they are on startles her when it starts to move. She falls into the railing. Malfoy snickers at her and she scowls. Her blouse gets caught when she turns and Hermione is annoyed when she loses a button. Sewing charms are not her strength.

She raises her head from looking at her ruined shirt. Malfoy is staring at her.

“See something you like?” she asks. He is not even making an effort to hide his staring.

He scoffs, tossing his head. “Of course not,” he sneers.

Hermione raises her eyebrows and then reaches to flick open a button on her blouse.

His eyes drop back down and he swallows. She continues and her bra is now fully exposed. Daphne has told them enough about his and Pansy’s relationship that she knows that this is not his first time seeing a girls bra. But he is staring at her like he doesn’t know what to do and she feels the heady feeling of power.

“I think you do Malfoy,” she steps closer to him and cups him through his trousers. He is obviously hard

Hermione is not quite sure what possesses her to reach a hand inside his pants. But he lets out a strangled moan and it is over embarrassingly quick for him.

“I gave Malfoy a hand job,” she announces after the four of them had gotten settled.

Daphne looks completely disgusted. “Why?” She turns from where she was aiming a Reducto. The other three having decided that if Daphne can’t come to the D.A., they will teach her what they learn when they meet instead.

Susan loses control of the Stupefy she is aiming and it bounces around the room. They all duck.

Hermione shrugs. She is still not sure. Afterwards, she had wiped her hand on his shirt and left him standing there. Their patrol hadn’t technically been done but she didn’t care.

Padma is intrigued. “How does something like that even happen?” Her question is rhetorical since she continues. “Did he return the favour at least?”

A large snort of air erupts from Daphne. “Doubtful. I’m pretty sure it was his first hand job. He and Pansy haven’t done anything below the waist yet.”

Oh, well, that explains why he was so quick then. Hermione wonders if she should feel guilty about Parkinson, but then remembers how the girl routinely mocks her, finding any fault she can with her appearance. And Hermione doesn’t care.

She is dreading her last patrol with Malfoy before January ends. But she is pleasantly surprised when she arrives at their meeting location to find Ron instead. He grins back at her.

“Malfoy asked to swap,” he answers, shaking his hand out. He sees her looking and looks slightly guilty. “I might have punched him,” he admits, then fixes her with a look. “You’re not snogging Dean again are you?”

Hermione stammers. And Ron rolls his eyes at her. “Boys talk too ‘Mione,” he says.

But she is confused because the three of them have never discussed these things. And she is surprised to learn that Ron has been snogging Hannah Abbott for the last month after they are done their patrol. All-in-all, she finds herself grateful to Malfoy for giving her this time with Ron.

She feels guilty when she inadvertently throws a wrench in Harry’s relationship with Cho. But Harry shrugs and seems to get over it rather quickly. His relationship with the Ravenclaw already fizzling quick.

“Honestly, Hermione, anyone can see the three of you are just friends,” Susan says. Padma nods. “It sounds like their relationship just isn’t great.”

“I’m considering having sex with Adrian,” Daphne bursts out, startling them.

“I thought you were still trying to get him to go down on you,” Padma turns to her.

Daphne shrugs with a small scowl. “I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”

When Harry’s interview in the Quibbler comes out, Umbridge’s goons, or the Inquisitorial Squad, are out in full force. They swarm over any infraction they can. And Hermione is elated when Umbridge is stupid enough to actually try and ban the magazine. 

Daphne tells them the mood in Slytherin is tense. Divisions are beginning to form between those with parents who are connected to you-know-who and the rest of them.

Seamus finally joins the D.A., and Hermione is relieved because that means that all the Gryffindors in her year are now involved.

“I snogged Tracey Davis,” Susan announces partway through a practice duel with Daphne.

Daphne loses focus and gets hit with a jinx. “When did that happen?”

“A few days ago after Herbology.”

“How was it?” Hermione asks.

Susan smiles. “Fabulous.”

Quidditch is going horribly this year. Ron wavers wildly between good and horrible in goal. His brothers manage the delicate edge that only siblings can, where they bash him one minute and then attack anyone who dares to agree with them.

Ginny does the same. It is the final straw for her relationship with Michael Corner when he agrees that Ron is doing a horrible job and doesn’t understand why she is angry.

“Don’t you dare tell any of my brothers that is why I’m done with him though,” she warns.

Hermione raises her hands. She wouldn’t dare. That Weasley temper is very real.

And then of course there is that song that Malfoy creates. It makes her see red because Ron is one of her dearest friends. And then he says something on the pitch during a game. Both Fred and Harry are lunging at Malfoy. The twins and Harry all got suspended permanently by Umbridge.

The absolute worst part though is that the song is just so damn catchy. Luna is constantly humming it. Padma looks guilty when she gets caught humming it. Even the ghosts are.

She is paired with Malfoy on patrols again. They normally patrol in silence, the incident on the staircase never spoken of. But when Malfoy starts humming she snaps at him. He smirks at her.

“Real proud of that are you? Couldn’t help but notice that you squealed and ran away when confronted by Fred,” Hermione taunts. “Wish I was there to see it when Ron punched you earlier this year,” she recalls Ron’s statement from a few months ago.

He scowls at her. “Physical violence is only used by those too dim-witted for their tongues or wand.”

She knows the smirk spreading her face is evil. But she has recently discovered from Angelina and a couple other girls talking after D.A. that the Weasley brothers have a reputation, mostly in Gryffindor but a bit in other houses, from Bill right on down to Ron, if you believe Hannah. And that reputation says that their tongue, or ‘wand’ does not fail them. Honestly, she is surprised that Ginny hasn’t heard about it yet. 

Padma and Daphne had looked intrigued when she told them, but as all three current Weasley brothers attending Hogwarts were either snogging or shagging someone else, there was nothing to be done. Padma hadn’t snogged anyone since Max, while Daphne was still debating having sex with Adrian.

But Malfoy doesn’t know any of this. “You think your tongue is better than a Weasley tongue?”

He is not stupid, so he does look apprehensive, but still sneers. “Of course.”

Hermione is still not sure why she does it, but she grabs his arm and pulls him into a classroom. When she shimmies her knickers down and hops on to a desk, he stares at her. She places her hands on his shoulders and nudges him downwards to his knees.

“Prove it,” she dares. She flips her skirt up with one hand. Places her other hand on his blond head.

His gray eyes are watching her as he leans in. He is clearly inexperienced, but very enthusiastic. With her guidance, he gets her to come screaming with her thighs wrapped around his head and her hand clenched in his hair.

He leans back on his heels. Smirks. Hermione hops down. Pulls her knickers up. “Adequate,” she shrugs. Leaves him sputtering on the classroom floor.

They are teaching Daphne the Patronus Charm the next day when she tells them.

“He did what?” Daphne is shocked. Susan’s jaw drops and Padma raises an eyebrow. But the shock is quickly overpowered by disgust. “And why him?”

Hermione shrugs. “It shut him up,” she says simply.

Padma snorts. “I suppose that’s a good a reason as you’re likely to give us.”

There is a prefects meeting a couple days later. It is boring even by Hermione standards. She is pretty sure that Ron actually falls asleep at one point, since he startles at the end of the meeting, limbs flailing. Hannah flicks his ear as she leaves with Ernie. 

She is talking with Padma about Charms homework. Ron leans against the wall beside her, eyes closed, waiting so they can walk back together. Malfoy brushes past her. “Granger,” he drawls. “Weasel,” he sneers and elbows him.

The surprise of it jolts Ron but Malfoy has severely underestimated what it means to grow up the sixth youngest brother. Ron has a hold of him slamming him against the wall before the Slytherin can take another step. “The fuck Malfoy?”

Parkinson screeches. Padma’s eyes widen. Anthony Goldstein looks over from where he is waiting for Padma.

It falls to Hermione to talk Ron down and let Malfoy go.

Her next patrol with the “fucking prat” as Ron called him on the walk back is two days later. She half expects him to swap out with someone else like he did last time, but he is already waiting for her when she arrives. They walk in silence. They chase away one snogging Hufflepuff couple in the first hour. 

“Which Weasley have you had?” Malfoy’s voice breaks the quiet. “Was it the oaf? He seems like he would be a bumbling mess.”

Hermione turns her head slightly to look at him. He is staring straight ahead, but she thinks she can see his jaw clench. She doesn’t say anything. Aside from the one snog with Fred under the mistletoe, she has no desire to be with any Weasley. She loves Ron and Harry as if they were her family.

He doesn’t take her silence well. When they don’t find anyone snogging in the next alcove they check, he pushes her in. Malfoy drops to his knees in front of her and reaches up to pull her knickers down. Hermione raises her eyebrows, but who is she to turn down this offer?

He remembers what he learned the first time and she comes in half the time. One hand braced against the wall, the other twisting in his hair. His lips glisten when he looks up at her. “Satisfactory,” she says.

And so a habit forms.

Daphne shakes her head at her. “It’s not going to end well.”

After the fourth time, she reaches into his trousers. When he asks if she’s going to return the favour, she shakes her head. “I don’t like the taste and I don’t trust you enough not to finish in my mouth.” He scowls at her.

The D.A. is exposed and everything goes to hell. Dumbledore is gone from Hogwarts. Hermione knows the jinx she placed on the parchment was vindictive but she doesn’t care. Seeing Mariette Edgecomb with the word ‘sneak’ written across her forehead is gratifying.

“I like it,” Daphne says.

Susan shakes her head. “Does it go away eventually?”

Hermione raises her shoulders. She assumes it will though she cannot say when.

Without the Headmaster, the students declare open warfare on Umbridge. None more so than Fred and George Weasley. The twins go out in a spectacular display. 

Even Malfoy comments on their exit, though not in the same way as everyone else. They no longer have patrols together. But he has sought her out, and so they are in the area that Padma will avoid on her patrols. He is kneeling in front of her. Two fingers curling inside her. “Was it one of those two? Or maybe it was both?”

“Shut up Malfoy,” she gasps and grabs his head to push against her.

Daphne is sitting by herself in the Room of Requirement when Hermione arrives. Her blond hair tied back in a messy bun. “Pansy says that Draco won’t touch her anymore.”

Hermione shrugs. She fails to see what that has to do with her.

When Padma and Susan arrive, Daphne sits up. “I had sex with Adrian. And I really hope it gets better.”

Padma groans about being the only virgin left in their group. She has recently been snogging Terry Boot but it has not progressed beyond petting yet.

According to Daphne, the sex with Adrian does not get better. She makes plans to break up with him by the end of the year since he will be graduating anyway.

The Battle at the Department of Mystery’s leaves Sirius dead and Hermione in the hospital wing for days. There are times that her chest feels like it will explode and the pain makes her want to weep. Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape go over the twelve different potions she will have to take. There is one for anti-nausea, one to stop a fever, one to stop the wound from re-opening and so on.

Ron and Harry are by her side most of the time. Whenever she wakes up they are there. But one day before they release her, Ron takes Harry out of the room. And her girls come tumbling in.

They are crying before they even get to her. Susan, Daphne and Padma. All of them have tears streaming down their faces. They climb on the hospital bed and gingerly surround her. Hermione tells them part of it, she still cannot tell them everything and then shows them the scar that she is left with.

When she can finally leave the hospital wing, she is still weak for a while. Ron has an arm around her. He steadies her as they wait for the train. She sees Malfoy sitting on a bench surrounded by the children of other Death Eaters. The remaining Slytherins giving him a wide berth. He catches her eye. She cannot figure out his expression.

Hermione stumbles on the step and Ron physically picks her up, handing her to Neville who steadies her on the train.


	3. Chapter 3

Sixth Year

Hermione manages to regain her strength after a week of rest at home. Amy comes by to see her and she gives her the same excuse she gave her parents – she was getting over a touch of pneumonia.

The first party she attends with Amy she meets Finn. He is friends with Amy’s boyfriend, so it is obviously a set up. He tastes like cigarettes when they kiss. At the second party, she follows him to his car and climbs into his lap. He tugs his pants down just enough and rolls on a condom. Right, she needs to remember muggle contraception. She pulls her knickers to the side, she wore a skirt for this very reason, and sinks down on him.

The sex is different than with Viktor. Viktor was sweet with her, going slow and peppering her with kisses. Finn does none of that. He just fucks her. After she rides him in his car, he drives to the flat he shares with his friend and bends her over his kitchen table.

They continue fucking for the rest of the time she is home. She tells him the same thing she told Amy when Amy saw her scar. That she received it in a bad car accident some months ago.

She is packing to leave. Ron’s brother Bill will be here shortly to take her back to the Burrow. And Amy walks into her room.

“I know that you didn’t get that scar in a car accident,” she says. “I swear it was glowing purple last week.”

Hermione scowls. She really shouldn’t have agreed to go swimming with them the other night. Her scar seems to react with water. But she turns to look at the girl she has known almost her entire life. The two of them living next door to each other since they were toddlers. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

Amy looks concerned. “Whatever it is, please be safe.”

But how does she tell her that there is a war that she cannot see? And that Hermione will be hunted. So instead she just hugs Amy, leaving her in her bedroom and goes down to meet Bill.

“Malfoy is a Death Eater.” Hermione and Ron look at each other as Harry repeats himself.

He keeps repeating himself. From the moment they saw Malfoy in Diagon Alley to now after the Welcome Feast. It seems unlikely. But they have no way to know for sure.

So she asks Daphne.

Her friend looks unsure, clutching a text book in her hands. “I don’t know. He’s been really weird this year. He quit Quidditch and doesn’t talk to anyone.”

Padma tells them that right before they left for holidays last year, Terry went down on her.

Hermione and Harry get into another row after the Quidditch trials because she confounded Cormac. Their first row being about his Potions text. But honestly, does he truly think that Cormac will be better than Ron? 

“I went down on Tracey,” Susan announces quietly, picking at a thread on her bag. She looks nervous as if she doesn’t know how they will react.

“Tell us everything!” Daphne whirls from her duel with Padma, getting hit in the back by a jinx that sends her spinning. “Is it bad? Is that why I can’t get a boy to do it for me yet?” she asks. Padma is right at her heels.

Susan laughs as the three of them crowd around her, eager for more information. Her face goes red. “How could bringing pleasure to someone you care about be bad?”

Hermione has her first patrol with Malfoy the following week. And she immediately sees what Daphne meant when she said he was being weird this year. It’s not like she was expecting him to drop to his knees like last year, but it’s more than that. He tries to keep at least a metre between them at all times. Jerks away from her if she comes too close to him. And he looks even paler than normal.

They find out from Susan that Hannah and Ron are no longer shagging. A fact she confirms when she asks Ron who shrugs and looks unconcerned. 

Hermione hadn’t even known that the two of them had progressed to shagging until this summer when she heard George asking about it. Ron doesn’t talk of it. Like his brothers before him, despite how talkative the Weasley’s usually were, they were surprisingly private when it came to sex.

Daphne looks intrigued at the news.

The first Slug Club dinner occurs. Harry leaves her on her own since he has detention with Professor Snape. She is trapped at the dinner between Cormac and Blaise. Cormac is somehow even more boastful than he is in the common room.

Katie Bell is cursed and Harry continues to be convinced that Malfoy is a Death Eater. Katie’s absence in Gryffindor Tower is large. The space she normally occupies with Leanne empty.

Padma has sex with Terry in mid-November. “It was rather quick. And he didn’t appreciate me asking if that was it.”

Hermione laughs along with Daphne. Susan shakes her head. “Boys have such fragile egos.”

Hermione wonders where Professor Dumbledore is leading Harry to with the information that he shares about Tom Riddle. There must be a purpose but for the life of her she cannot figure it out.

In Defense, they continue to work on non-verbal spells. Professor Snape switches their partners regularly. The jinx she throws at Nott is one his father aimed at her last year and she smirks. Ron is paired with Daphne again. A jinx hits her friend, knocking her flat on her back. Ron offers a hand to her feet.

The death of Amelia Bones devastates Susan. That it was allegedly by you-know-who himself is terrifying. Susan’s father is the last of his siblings left. Susan’s younger brother clings to her at meals for the next while.

Hermione is annoyed with Harry. She supposes she can see why the hat almost put him in Slytherin now. Ron is annoyed with her. But honestly, he thought Harry gave him liquid luck too. And then she is annoyed with Ron, because really, Lavender? That girl overshares. Much like when Lavender and Kevin were together, she will now be treated to a play-by-play of Ron.

“Seriously?” Daphne looks outraged when Hermione shares the news. The three of them look at her. “Did you really think it was a coincidence that we’ve been paired so much in Defense?”

Padma raises her eyebrows. “You’ve been making a play for Ron?” She has informed them the sex with Terry has improved recently

Daphne huffs. “I thought it was worth a shot!”

Cormac is not a horrible date to Professor Slughorn’s party. He is a little handsy and while Hermione would normally be fine with that, she’s never been a fan of an audience. Even years before during spin-the-bottle, her face would go red.

She reconciles with Harry. He brought Luna. She smiles. He really does have a good heart.

Under the mistletoe, she determines that Cormac is actually a pretty decent kisser and she decides what the hell. His grin is arrogant but then he ducks his head under her dress. And she comes screaming on his tongue before she slides off the desk and kneels in front of him.

“I thought you didn’t like him,” Daphne looks confused. Susan nods in agreement.

Hermione shrugs. “He’s arrogant, but his arrogance is earned in that regard.” Padma laughs.

The holidays are bleak. Hermione has been researching this for months now. Padma, Daphne and Susan finding what they can too. Ever since she saw Professor Dumbledore at the start of the year and you could just tell he was dying. When Dumbledore falls, she thinks, they will lose their best defense against you-know-who.

Her house is empty now. Everything cleared out. Her parents are on the way to Australia. And she will probably never see them again. If she does, they will not know who she is.

She is bawling in the bare living room. When the front door opens she is not surprised to see Amy.

Her friend glances around then settles her eyes on Hermione sitting on the floor. “This is all related, isn’t it?” Amy gestures across her chest at the exact same spot where Hermione’s scar is.

She nods. She wishes she could do the same for Amy, but Amy is one of five children and almost thirty cousins. Her family has lived in this area for three generations. There is no way she can do that much magic to remove them all.

“After I leave here, you shouldn’t ever say my name again,” Hermione says. She hopes that if they do come looking for her, they will leave them alone if they think they don’t know her.

Amy hugs her.

Hermione casts as many protection spells as she can possibly think of at all the homes in her neighbourhood. She is exhausted. She can barely summon the Knight Bus to take her to Susan’s.

Her friend lets her cry and she spends the remaining holidays with her. Susan’s family is just as sad as she is.

“I sincerely hope that your friend is the Chosen One,” Mr Bones says. He is wiping at the tears in his eyes.

But Harry is still just a boy. A boy who is happy that the girl he likes is having problems with her boyfriend. Hermione is glad that the advice she gave Ginny a couple years ago seems to be working, but she wishes Harry would focus on his lessons with Dumbledore.

She has not been able to find anything about what a Horcrux is in the library. Ron has even been helping her. He figures Lavender won’t look for him in the library and he seems to be right.

“Don’t get me wrong ‘Mione, I’m all for shagging,” he says when she asks him why he’s there. “But it feels like she’s trying to mount me in the middle of the fucking common room at times.” He grabs another book off the top shelf for her.

Daphne is paired with Ron again in Defense.

“From what you said, it sounds like they’re having problems,” her face is slightly red though. An odd look on Daphne. “I’m starting now then.”

Susan laughs. “Having him repeatedly hit you with jinxes is an odd way to go about it.”

Daphne glares at her. “It’s the only class we share.”

Hermione is paired with Malfoy again for patrols. He somehow looks even worse after the holidays. It looks as if he has lost weight too. Their first night of rounds, he doesn’t say a single word to her, even when they catch a shagging couple in an alcove on the sixth floor.

The second night of patrols she is surprised to see Ron waiting for her. “Malfoy asked to swap,” he says. “It gets me out of rounds with Parkinson and you out of them with Malfoy.”

The shagging couple they find in the alcove on the sixth floor stuns her.

Ron laughs. “I’ve got to say Parkinson, from the way you act every time we come across people shagging, I did not expect this from you.” His back is turned to allow the Slytherin girl to do up her shirt and pull down her skirt.

Hermione watches as Malfoy tucks himself back in and does up his belt. Parkinson’s face is bright red. There is no colour on Malfoy’s.

“Decent,” Parkinson hisses. Ron turns around. Hermione realizes that despite their animosity the two of them have actually communicated enough on their patrols for Ron to know what she meant.

He is still laughing. “Can I give some advice though? Malfoy, I noticed you had Parkinson perched on the ledge. That doesn’t work well at that height. You should have braced her against the wall, hands here,” Ron is using his hands now, holding them as if he had a girl in front of him. “That way, you can just,” he does a thrusting motion with his hips.

Despite the awkward situation, Hermione laughs. Ron winks at her.

Malfoy explodes. “What the fuck do you know Weasel? Granger letting you between her legs? I thought you were shagging that blond bint. Although I suppose that’s all a mudblood is really good for. Side piece to a blood traitor is the-“

Ron punches him. It is not fighting like how he normally fights with his brothers or the other boys in their year. The force of the punch sends Malfoy reeling into the wall behind him. Malfoy launches himself at him. But Ron is larger. More experience fighting. For the one punch Malfoy lands, Ron gets another two.

Parkinson is wailing. Hermione manages to pull Ron away. They watch as the two Slytherins leave the hallway.

“Why did Malfoy want you to catch him Hermione?” Ron asks. She puzzles over the question. Ron snorts. “These were your rounds. He asked to swap with me, was actually real polite about it. Why did he want you to see him shagging Parkinson?”

She wonders if it goes back to their activities the year before. “I don’t know.”

Ron looks as if he doesn’t quite believe her but leaves it alone.

Hermione doesn’t think too much on why she drags Cormac into the same alcove after the Slug Club dinner two nights later. He lifts her dress up. It is rough and frenzied. It feels like he is fucking her into the wall. He smothers her mouth with his when she comes.

And because it is Hermione, a habit forms. It is certainly one way to make Slug Club dinners more enjoyable. 

Terry breaks up with Padma. She is devastated. “Why?”

They tell her that it is his loss and he will certainly regret it. But it is poor comfort when Padma is sobbing.

Seamus is friends with him, so Hermione tries to enlist him to find out more information as to why Terry broke up with her friend. He declines to help her. “Fuck’s sake, ‘Mione, sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”

It must be a Weasley tradition to spend their seventeenth birthday in the hospital wing. She looks at Ron, seemingly doing better though still pale, and thinks of the twins two years ago on their birthday. A prank had backfired on them and they had ended up in the hospital wing with thick fur covering their bodies.

“Lavender thinks you’re really sick,” Hermione says. Ginny nods, glaring at her brother.

He grimaces. “Yeah, I need to break up with her.”

Both Weasley siblings break up with their partners the following week. Lavender cries, but Parvati looks relieved.

“It’s not like they were that compatible together,” Parvati confesses after Lavender goes to wash her face.

Dean seems to be taking it rather well, though he won’t talk to Harry or Ron. 

“I just don’t get why he’s angry at me. I told him to stay away from my sister to begin with,” Ron complains. “A bloke’s sister is off limits.” Hermione wonders what will happen when Harry and Ginny inevitably get together. 

Daphne is thrilled. Hermione sees her miss a spell that she knows she has mastered in Defense. Even Ron doesn’t look convinced when his jinx knocks her back.

Ron doesn’t have clearance from Madame Pomfrey yet to play in the next Quidditch game. A fact which makes him furious. He storms out of the Tower when Harry tells Cormac he is playing. He learned about Hermione Confounding him during the trials over the holidays. She has a feeling the insecurity it caused is rearing up again.

Seamus and Neville can’t stop laughing. Luna’s commentary is hilarious. Although the game ends in a loss, Cormac embarrassing himself and Harry in the hospital wing, Luna’s commentary is what makes it stand out.

Still though, she follows Cormac to an empty classroom after the next Slug Club dinner.

He has her skirt flipped up, bent over a desk. He is pounding into her with such ferocity that the desk is actually moving. A hand grabs her chest, her blouse open, and he hauls her up so that her back is against his chest. He is grunting in her ear. Each thrust practically lifts her off her feet.

This means that she has a clear view to the door when it opens. Padma and Malfoy walk in during their patrols.

Padma’s eyes widen. Her mouth falls open. Something flickers across Malfoy’s expressionless face. Cormac slides out of her and throws his robe in front of them to cover her.

“Wow Granger, you’ll just spread your legs for anyone won’t you?” Malfoy sneers.

Cormac throws a hex. Padma is the one to put up a Protego. “Get out!” she yells at Malfoy. He looks at her in surprise until she screams at him again. “Get out! Get out! Get out!” He leaves the room.

Hermione is unprepared for the fury on Padma’s face when she turns to her. “You too McLaggen, get out.”

Cormac pulls up his pants, mumbles that he’ll see her later and leaves the room too.

“What the fuck Hermione?”

She is not sure what to say. But it doesn’t matter because Padma just continues.

“You know these are the rounds I’m doing tonight. I may not have gotten the whole attraction to McLaggen thing, until I literally saw him fuck you off your feet, but I told you where I wouldn’t go tonight. This room,” Padma makes a circle with her hand. “Was not on there. Why did you want to get caught?” She makes a disgusted sound at Hermione’s face. “For someone really smart, you can be really fucking stupid.”

Padma doesn’t mention her outburst to her a couple days later when they are with Susan and Daphne. They weren’t able to get into the Room of Requirement, they hadn’t been able to the last few times actually, so are in the empty Charms classroom. Harry is convinced that Malfoy is hiding out in the Room.

Ron returns from his own patrols rather late the following night. And the next night he blows off Harry to disappear somewhere.

Daphne is grinning. “I’ve been snogging Ron Weasley,” she shares.

Hermione makes a disgusted face that the rest of the girls laugh at. “He’s like my brother.”

“How did you manage that one?” Susan asks.

“Did you know he actually walks Pansy back to our dorms after they’re done patrolling?”

Padma nods, but Hermione shakes her head. “He walks me back too. Same with Hannah. I assume, despite his dislike for Pansy, he did for her as well,” she explains.

“Yes, well, I waited outside and then just went for it! We snogged!” she repeats.

Well, she thinks, looking at blond-haired Daphne, Ron definitely has a type.

Ron does not say a word about it. If it weren’t for Daphne giving regular updates as to the progress of the snogging, she wouldn’t know. She knows that Harry doesn’t. 

Daphne is overjoyed when she announces that Ron went down on her. “It is so much better than I thought!” She giggles and blocks the book that Hermione throws at her.

All of them pass their apparition test. It gives Hermione a feeling of freedom which she desperately enjoys.

Ron pouts when he fails. He complains that it was just an eyebrow. Hermione doesn’t even notice when he ducks out of the common room that night. She wonders when he became so stealthy.

“I reciprocated,” Daphne tells them. “I gave Ron a blow job,” she explains when they all look at her in confusion. “It’s . . . different,” her mouth twists. “But I didn’t mind it.”

_Horcruxes._ Horcrux – plural. Hermione wants to vomit. She sees her expression mirrored on Ron’s face. Harry just seems resigned. He sighs.

“I think I’m in love with Tracey,” Susan says. Her red hair covers her face as she ducks her head down.

Daphne snorts. “That’s been obvious for a while. She loves you too for what it’s worth.”

Malfoy is not healthy. He is thin and the angles on his face stand out. His skin so pale he looks to be the same colour of the hospital wing sheets. He is wearing a hospital robe, similar to the one she wore at the end of last year, but there looks to be fresh blood staining his. She thinks of Harry with his guilt in the common room.

“Miss Granger,” she expects Professor Snape to sneer at her or ask why she is here. An answer she is not even aware of. But he just hands her a vial.

He hums a counter-curse and waves his wand over Malfoy. He wakes up with a cry and grabs for where his wand would normally be. Malfoy notices her standing there when Professor Snape motions her over with the vial. His eyes widen. He claws at the arm that the professor is holding him down with.

She hesitates. “I assume you’re here Miss Granger due to your guilt about Potter almost killing Draco.” She jerks her head. “Bring the stabilizer,” he orders.

Professor Snape lets Malfoy sit up. He still keeps the arm across his chest though. She expects Malfoy to feel cool for some reason, but he has the same warmth that he did last year. She runs from the room.

Hermione is not sure if Harry and Ginny are together. Neither one of them has said anything. But they were holding hands when they came back. She looks at Ron, expecting an explosion.

Sometimes, he really surprises her though. “It was always going to be Harry,” he says instead.

The only thing he does say is to ask not in front of him. After their snog celebrating Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup. It is quite the celebration in the common room. Cormac has brought her a glass of something. It is not a Slug Club dinner, but she is flushed from the alcohol so drags him out the door with her anyway.

She sees Ron’s bright hair disappear around the hallway. And thinks of Daphne waiting somewhere. She pulls Cormac in the opposite direction.

The first time Hermione has patrol with Malfoy since he almost died is strange. He is still silent, but he walks beside her instead of behind her.

Padma and Terry get back together. By snogging. In the Great Hall, in front of everyone. Hermione and Susan tease her. The girls giggle. Daphne quirks her lips. Fiddles with a button on her bag.

It is nearing the end of term. June means exams. Her current patrol partner is Ernie. They spend the first night quizzing each other. Potions. Defense. Transfiguration.

The second night she is surprised to see Malfoy waiting for her. “Macmillan said something came up.” He answers her look, not quite meeting her eye.

Hermione shrugs. She had prepared some questions to review with Ernie, but resigns herself to a quiet patrol with Malfoy instead. They find a couple snogging behind a statue. She rolls her eyes at Dean, she doesn’t recognize the Hufflepuff he is with. He grins at her then walks his date back. At least he is over Ginny.

The second couple confuses her. Because she doesn’t understand why they are here.

Malfoy pulls back the tapestry, face carefully blank at the sounds they hear. And she sees Daphne with her legs wrapped around Ron. She has enough time to think that Ron is literally putting into action what he mimed months ago before he turns, one arm wrapped around Daphne’s back, who squeaks, legs still wrapped around him, and he yanks Malfoy in with the other.

“Get in here ‘Mione,” he growls.

Daphne has slid down to the floor and smoothed her skirt out. Ron has not bothered with his pants. One arm presses against Malfoy’s throat. He tears the wand out of his hand with the other. He slams it at Hermione and gets his own out.

He holds it to Malfoy’s face. And Malfoy is terrified. There is no doubt. He grabs at the arm on his throat.

“Ron?” Daphne looks apprehensive. She touches his arm but he doesn’t react.

“What are you going to do Malfoy?” Ron asks instead. He presses his forearm harder against his throat. “Tell all your little minions down there how Daphne’s shagging a blood traitor? Make her life a living hell?”

“No, no, I won’t.” Malfoy shakes his head. Ron scoffs. “I swear.”

Ron switches arms against Malfoy’s throat and pulls Daphne beside him. “You can swear it to Daphne. Make a vow.”

They all know what Ron means at the same time. Hermione is shocked that he would suggest one after telling Harry how fatally serious they can be. Daphne talks softly to Ron. Hands on his chest. She tries to squeeze herself between the two boys.

Malfoy begs. It is painful to see. “Please, no. No, no, please, it will kill me.”  
  


“All you’ve got to do is keep your fucking mouth shut,” Ron says. He shakes his head. “You keep your mouth shut, you’ll be fine.”

“It won’t matter! He’ll see it!” Malfoy cries. “He’ll see it!” Gray eyes dart to Hermione. “He saw you.”

At Malfoy’s tears, Ron lets up with his arm. Malfoy collapses down, his arms braced on his legs. Daphne turns, hands still on Ron’s chest, to look back at her housemate. Ron tugs his pants up. Hermione feels nauseous. There is a horrible inkling brewing in her mind.

“Who’ll see it?” Ron asks. He looks down with a strange combination of pity and disgust.

Malfoy just cries harder. Hiccupping sobs shake his body.

Ron darts an arm around Daphne. He grabs Malfoy’s arm. Slams it above him against the wall. Pulls the sleeve down.

Ron lets go like it burns him. Daphne gasps. Hermione feels like she may vomit. Malfoy keeps sobbing.

It is just as vile as when she saw it on Professor Snape’s arm two years ago.

Hermione doesn’t think she has ever seen so many conflicting emotions on Ron’s face. Anger. Disgust. Pity. Fear.

Daphne whispers something she cannot hear. Ron yells for Malfoy to get out. Malfoy does not need to be told twice and runs off. He grabs his wand out of Hermione’s hands.

It is quiet without Malfoy’s sobbing. Daphne places her hands on Ron’s shoulders. He takes a step away from her. Reaches to do up his belt.

“I don’t know what you’re fucking playing at Daphne.” There is true anger in his voice. Daphne lets out a cry. “You think I’m fucking stupid? You planned this.” Daphne reaches for him. He jerks away from her. “Every other time, we never get caught in Hermione’s area for rounds. But tonight we do. When she’s with fucking Malfoy!”  
  


“She was supposed to be doing rounds with Ernie!” Daphne argues.

Hermione knows she is intruding on an argument she shouldn’t. But she feels rooted to the floor.

“So you did plan it? What are you fucking playing at?” Ron yells.

“I just wanted you to acknowledge me!” Daphne bursts out. She is crying.

He stares at her for a moment then turns to Hermione. His jaw clenches. “Hermione, I fucked Greengrass.” He storms away.

Daphne sobs. Hermione is not sure if it’s the cruel way he spat the words out, his use of the past tense or referring to her by her last name. Probably all three. But Daphne just bawls. When she hugs her friend, Hermione can feel the cries heave through her.

The next day Death Eaters are in the castle and Professor Dumbledore is killed.

Miraculously nobody else was killed. The worst injury is Bill. Hermione knows that liquid luck could help with some of it. But not to that extent. She thinks that the Death Eaters didn’t really try. And that scares her.

Ron sits down on the steps beside her. Harry has asked for a moment alone. They watch him stare out across the grounds. She looks at her friend. He is watching her calmly.

“What did he mean when he said ‘he saw you’?”

Hermione glances away to the ground. “We did . . . ‘stuff’ last year,” she says for lack of a better explanation.

She expects an explosion, but Ron just nods as if that was what he expected her to say. “Harry says he was lowering his wand.”

It is not enough though. He still let the Death Eaters in. He still almost killed Katie. And Ron.

It takes some convincing on her part to get Ron to talk to Daphne. He thinks that she will be safer if he doesn’t. But Hermione knows that is not true. She’s not sure that anything can keep any of them safe anymore.

Ron does more than talk to Daphne. He brings his sister, Harry and Hermione to the Astronomy Tower. When Daphne tentatively climbs the last stair, Ron leaps forward to her. He places her directly in front of them. Then kisses her.

Harry looks confused. Ginny lets out a sound of disgust. She mutters something about why her brother thought she needed to see him snog somebody. Hermione feels a surge of happiness for her friend. 

She is surprised when Cormac kisses her before he leaves the school and tells her to be safe.

Hermione, Susan and Daphne say bye to each other the next day. They never got to say good-bye to Padma. Her parents took her and Parvati out of school immediately upon Professor Dumbledore’s death. She and Lavendar hugged Parvati tight before she left. Susan and Daphne ask her to be safe. Instead of answering, she hugs them.

When Hermione leaves Hogwarts, she is not sure if she will ever see it again.


	4. Chapter 4

Seventh Year

The house Hermione goes to check on is still empty. She is disillusioned so nobody sees her. But she watches Amy get home, her youngest sister in tow. Before she leaves, she reinforces all of the protection spells. And just prays.

Time seems to somehow move both very fast and very slow. July is a strange waiting game. She stays with the Weasley’s of course, because Ron is her family. He hugs her when she finally tells him what she has done to her parents. She clings to him as she cries.

It is painful to know that they will never again get Fred and George confused with each other.

The news that Snape is Headmaster and Hogwarts is now mandatory makes them all worry. Hermione knows that the best thing they can do to is to defeat you-know-who. But it does nothing to allay her guilt that she is not there with them.

“She’s in Slytherin, doesn’t believe in blood purity and was with me,” Ron worries.

Ron’s splinching is ghastly. It stretches across his collar bone, through his shoulder and down his arm. Hermione feels guilty for causing it. She was just trying to shake the hand on her ankle. And she feels guilty for being unable to heal it. The scar will be there for life.

She finds it cruel that nobody thought to take Harry to his parents graves until now. He pats her arm when she hugs him. Hermione hopes that he knows just how much she loves him.

With Ron back, the locket destroyed and the sword in their possession, it feels like they can do this.

Until Malfoy Manor. And Bellatrix Lestrange.

Malfoy is hesitant to identify them. But his father has no such hesitation. Then Bellatrix has her.

Hermione has never been in that much pain before in her life. She thinks of Neville’s parents who can no longer recognize their son. She swears she can feel her brain turning on her. And despite the pain coursing through her veins that terrifies her more.

But she clings to the one thought that she needs to. The sword is a copy. A copy. She repeats it over and over again.

And then the pain blessedly stops. There are blurry figures around her. She thinks one of them may be Malfoy, she sees gray eyes. Ron is yelling her name. She wants to tell him she is fine. But all she can say is copy.

It starts again.

She wakes up in a bed she doesn’t recognize. Harry is at her side. She cries for Dobby with him.

Hermione assures Luna that they do not blame her father for what he did. She rubs Luna’s back as she cries.

Bill and Ron get into a fight. It surprises everyone and takes Harry, Dean and Fleur to pull them apart. 

“I am supposed to be the one that protects you!” Bill is crying. And she thinks that it may have started when Bill realized that they would be leaving soon.

She has never been so relieved when she steps out of that portrait behind Neville and sees all of her friends. Susan and Padma rush her. When Harry and Ron follow behind her, it becomes a giant group hug.

The rest of the room surrounds them. Hermione doesn’t recognize Seamus until he starts speaking. She wants to cry, instead she hugs him and tells him that Dean is fine. He shudders in relief and grips her tighter.

Hermione always knew the cost of war was atrocious. She grew up knowing muggle history after all. But to see it spread out in front of her. There is just so many and she has barely stepped foot inside the room. Nymphadora Tonks. Remus Lupin. Lavender Brown. Colin Creevey. _Fred Weasley_. 

Padma is bent over Terry’s body. Parvati looks lost beside her. Eyes between her grieving twin and her dead friend. Hermione hugs them both the best she can. Susan clutches Tracey’s hand at their side.

Finally, it is over. Or at least Harry has destroyed Voldemort. Hermione doesn’t delude herself into thinking that just because Voldemort is gone that blood prejudice will cease to exist.

They stay in the castle that night. Mrs Weasley will not leave Fred. And the rest of her children will not leave her. Daphne stays close to Ron.

Malfoy is still there with his mother. His father having been taken away by the Aurors earlier. Harry argues to keep Malfoy and his mother out. Surprisingly, Ron speaks up as well for him. But neither one of them speaks for Lucius Malfoy.

“You don’t cry like that if you believe in what you’re doing,” Ron says when she asks him why.

Seventh Year - Plus

Hermione thinks nothing can be worse than seeing the dead be taken away to the cries of their families. But then there are days upon days of funerals. The grief is physically draining.

Padma and Parvati are both broken. Lavender and Terry’s funerals in quick succession. She thinks they have never looked more alike. Identical expressions of grief.

They bury Fred next to Mrs Weasley’s brothers. Hermione looks at George. He is staring at the grave of his uncle. He disappears into his siblings. Ron clutches his shoulder. Ginny his hand. Percy, Bill and Charlie surround them.

Her house is gone. It has been razed to the ground. So are four other homes around it. Including Amy’s.

She stands staring at the empty spaces. It is just dirt now. Grass hasn’t even grown.

“Horrible thing,” she looks over. A woman has stopped beside her. She rocks the baby carriage she pushes as she stands in palace. The woman looks at her with sympathy. “Did you know them?”

“What happened?” she croaks instead. Although she knows what happened. Death Eaters happened. _She_ happened.

“Gas main explosion,” the woman answers. “Such a horrible accident,” she shakes her head.

But Hermione knows it was no accident. They came looking for _her_. And when they couldn’t find her, they destroyed everything they could. She clenches her hands. The nails mark her skin.

Kingsley is sympathetic but unhelpful. “I’m sorry Hermione, I really am, but there is just no way to know who it was. I’m sorry.”

It is Ron that gives her the idea. Daphne presses into his side on the couch. She has not left him since the Battle. They make no secret of the fact that she stays in his room with him.

“There may be someone that can help,” he says. His eyes dart down to the scar on her arm.

Harry comes with her. Because it’s Harry and he loves her. And he doesn’t say anything when she clutches his hand too tight at the door.

Malfoy is healthier which she finds just so very unfair. He is still pale. He looks ruined. But he is healthier. Mrs Malfoy has the same regal bearing she had at the Quidditch World Cup. They sit in a small study.

The older woman shakes her head. She tries to talk to them about their trials instead. Her husband is back in Azkaban. He still has his sentence from two years ago to serve. But their two trials are next month. She is not even being subtle in her angling.

Hermione clings to Harry’s. He pats her hand. She squeezes her eyes shut. And thinks _for Amy_.

“Mother, please,” Malfoy speaks. She opens her eyes to look at him. He will not look at her.

Mrs Malfoy tries a different tactic. “Your home was empty when they went.”

Hermione wants to leap across the table. She wants to scream. “Four other homes were not empty. They were home.” _Amy was home._ She should have done more. She should have protected her.

“Mother,” Malfoy says again. He swallows. And Hermione thinks that he may cry.

Only two of the names that Mrs Malfoy gives them are still alive. She lobbies successfully to have seventeen charges of murder added to the list of crimes of Antonin Dolohov and Jeremy Travers. She thinks of Amy telling her the scar looks purple and wishes Kingsley would allow the Dementors back to Azkaban.

She hates that she feels grateful to them that it was quick.

Susan holds her arm. They watch an older couple make their way out of the graveyard. Hermione lets out a sob. She has seen that couple in Amy’s home throughout her childhood.

They turn at the noise. “Hermione, dear, is that you? We haven’t seen you in ages.” They are smiling softly at her through tears and it is just so wrong.

She cries and Amy’s grandmum hugs her. She pats her on the back. She feels guilty for accepting sympathy. But she just cannot stop crying.

“You can’t tell them,” Susan reminds her later. Hermione knows this. But it gets her thinking.

Harry comes with her again. Because he understands. He feels the same. There were so many muggles killed by wizards. Their families may not know the truth, but Hermione will make sure that the crimes do not go unpunished.

They sit in the same study. Malfoy still will not look at her.

“Everything,” she answers when Mrs Malfoy asks how much they want to know.

It is only when Malfoy speaks again that his mother begins talking.

“Did you never go Malfoy?” Hermione interrupts. His mother goes silent.

He fidgets. “I threw up when I,” he coughs uncomfortably. His eyes still on the floor. “When I, um,” he closes his eyes and Hermione thinks that he may be crying. “They didn’t want to take me. Snape kept me here.” He finishes.

Mrs Malfoy begins talking again. She gives them a list of Death Eater names and approximate dates they went out.

“I went once,” Malfoy says. She and Harry have stood up to leave. Hermione turns back. He is looking directly at her. “I went once,” he repeats. “July 16th,” he recites the address.

“He was unable to curse anyone,” his mother defends.

“But I went,” Malfoy cries. He is staring at her.

“He threw up,” his mother continues. “It was too much.”

Hermione looks at him crying in the chair. She turns and walks away. 

She works to match the information Mrs Malfoy gave her with “accidents” in the muggle world. It is slow going. But she is quickly joined by Dean and Justin. 

In early July, she and Ron move in with Harry to Grimmauld. And she loses track of the number of times she catches Ron and Daphne shagging. Harry has taken to talking loudly before he enters a room.

Yet she doesn’t feel like she’s intruding. Until she walks in to the kitchen. And hears the words Ron breathes on to Daphne’s skin.

“Do you love him too?” she asks.

Daphne blushes. Stares absently at the paper she is reading. “Yes,” she answers softly.

The trial for Amycus Carrow, Alecto having been killed, lasts for three days. Student after student after student testify as to their cruelty. Padma cries during her testimony about the scars on Terry’s back from his torture. Seamus speaks calmly as if the torture was not inflicted upon him. But there are scars on his face that will never go away. Neville is passionate. And confident. He calls for justice. And reform.

Hermione wonders how she will speak of her torture in five days.

She has already testified at a few trials of course. Augustus Rookwood. Thorfinn Rowle. Corbin Yaxley.

But she was the only one on their side in that drawing room when Bellatrix Lestrange had her. She will be on her own.

“Guilty,” Malfoy pleads.

The room waits but he does not follow his plea with the same request for clemency his mother just did.

“Mr Malfoy, do you wish to petition this court for clemency?” Monroe prompts.

He shakes his head. Harry jumps to his feet. The room erupts. In the end, a petition for clemency is entered on his behalf by his advocate.

And then Hermione speaks. Harry offers to make them empty the room for her. But she thinks of Padma and Seamus, Luna and Ollivander. She can do this too.

She stares at Harry and Ron when she talks. They nod at her encouragingly. She answers the questions about what Bellatrix did. Her eyes shift as she speaks. Malfoy’s head is in his hands. His shoulders are shaking. Mrs Malfoy avoids her eyes.

Ron grips her hand after. And she remembers him screaming her name. She hugs him tight.

Trials continue throughout August. It drains them all.

Grimmauld becomes a meeting place for all their friends. There are more people than there are beds. She finds Susan and Tracey sleeping on the couch in the library. And there seems to be a never ending supply of alcohol.

Hermione blames the firewhiskey when she runs a hand down the scars on Seamus’s face. She wonders how it feels to have his visible for everyone to see. He tastes like she feels.

He hooks her leg over his shoulder. Her hand braces them against the headboard above her. The bed slams into the wall. She throws her other leg on his shoulder. Seamus leans back to his knees and grips her hips. Hermione thinks she will lose her voice from screaming so loud.

The next morning she climbs on top of him. He smiles sleepily.

An announcement is made that the beginning of the Hogwarts term is delayed to mid-October to allow for further repairs to the castle. A request is made for volunteers.

The response is overwhelming. But is limited to of-age wizards and witches only. They are still finding dangerous items in areas.

And so they all move back to Hogwarts. It feels strange. There are people missing. Hermione still looks for Lavender when she sees Parvati. Padma looks around like she is seeing Terry everywhere. And everywhere she looks she sees a prank that the Weasley twins pulled.

“Fuck ‘Mione,” Seamus moans. “You’re going to run me dry,” he complains. But still thrusts up into her.

Malfoy looks even healthier. He is skittish and pale. But healthier.

He is there as part of his probation. Most other volunteers tend to give him a wide berth. But Ron sits next to him at meals, Daphne glowering at her former housemate at his side. Neville and Hannah chat politely at him. Harry sticks to his side during repairs.

“He almost killed you!” Ginny argues. She throws a hex at her brother.

Ron hisses and throws one back. “He didn’t succeed!”

“Because he’s incompetent!” she is exasperated. “That’s not a good defense.”

“We can’t keep fighting a war Gin!” he says. “I can’t handle the cost.” And Ginny cries.

Tracey runs a hand through Susan’s hair. “I do think he regrets it.” Daphne scowls.

Seamus moves over her. She crosses her ankles behind his back. He twists and she screams. His hand covers her mouth. He jerks his head at the curtains. As more volunteers came, they had to double or triple up rooms. He is sharing a room with Dean and Anthony now.

Hermione nods. “I can be quiet.”

He smirks at her. Removes his hand. And then twists again. She bites her lip. She is quiet for the first one. He flips her to her knees, grabs her hips and slams her backward on to him. She buries her scream in his pillow.

Anthony does some room manoeuvring. Hermione does not need to bother trying to be quiet after that.

“You just had to say something Hermione,” Penelope says. “I keep all couples together in their own room.”

Harry snorts. Malfoy tenses.

“We’re not together,” she says. Penelope tilts her head. “We’re just,” she trails off.

The first time that Padma truly laughs it is because they have caught Ron and Daphne shagging. 

“Seriously? I think we need to re-establish safe zones for this in the castle,” she laughs. Ron and Daphne shrug their clothing back on. “And you have a room!”

When the work is finished on the fifth floor, McGonagell announces a new dorm for the ‘eighth years’. The Ministry is allowing a special NEWT evaluation in December for students who will take the two months to prepare for them. McGonagell allows them the use of the school and library.

Rooms are assigned as doubles. A series of switches sees Daphne with Ron. Susan with Tracey. Neville with Hannah. Anthony with Mandy.

Dean moves Hermione’s trunk to Seamus’s room.

“I’m not listening to the two of you shag,” he says. He moves his trunk to Harry’s room. 

The rest of the ‘eighth years’ arrive with the start of term a week later. Malfoy finally moves in then too. There are still sections of the castle under repair. But it is open.

“Please,” she moans. Her fingers twist in Seamus’s hair.

He hums into her. The vibration makes her scream.

“Merlin Granger,” Nott pinches the bridge of his nose. “Have you never heard of a privacy charm?”

Parvati snorts. “Now you know why that room was empty.”

“I don’t think Draco or I slept at all last night.”

Hermione freezes. Padma glances over at her.

Study groups form. Harry leads Defense. Hermione Charms. Padma Transfiguration. Ernie Potions. Neville Herbology. Runes of course is Susan, Hermione, Daphne and Padma.

“We’re back girls,” Daphne smiles.

Harry brings Malfoy to Potions. Anthony halts in his speaking for a moment, before he continues. Then Ron brings Malfoy to Transfiguration. Charms. Defense. He is everywhere.

Her nails dig into his chest. His fingers dig into her hips. She knows there will be bruises in the morning.

“Fuck Finnegan,” Nott complains. “I’m surprised you and Granger are able to function during the day.”

Harry and Ron complete their Auror applications. So do Seamus and Dean. Susan and Parvati. Justin and Isabel. Blaise and Mandy. The NEWT qualifications have been relaxed. They are all guaranteed to get in for February.

“I think they’re all expecting us to join the rest of the Gryffindors,” Neville smiles at her. “But I’m with you ‘Mione.” She links her arm with his. Rests her head on his shoulder. “All the way.”

“Do you think it’s too early?” Padma has not opened her text. Traces a finger along the edge.

The three of them look at her then each other. “Too early for what?” Daphne asks.

Padma squeezes her eyes shut. “I was attracted to Oliver today,” she confesses. Hiccups out a sob. “It’s barely been six months!” She digs the palms of her hands into her eyes. “I’m horrible!”

They crowd around her. Alternate between telling her she’s not horrible and that her attraction is normal. But Hermione knows that they are out of their element. They are all out of their element. But they try. Sees Daphne try to comfort Ron when he gets a faraway look on his face. Ginny and Harry. Parvati. All of them. She watches his blond head slink through the room.

“Do you miss him?” Hermione asks.

Malfoy looks startled. He glances around. But he was at the table by himself when she sat down. The library is quiet. He is wary. “Miss who?”

“Crabbe,” she clarifies. “Do you miss him?”

He tenses. Gray eyes watching her carefully. “He tried to kill you.”

“I’m aware, I was there after all.” He flinches at the glib way she says it. But it is true. It is not like it is the only time somebody tried to kill her. Her magical life has been filled with those who want her dead. “But do you miss him?”

He swallows. Nods. Those gray eyes have not left her face. “Sometimes.”

“Why only sometimes?” she pushes.

His jaw twitches. “Because other times I remember what he did and I hate him for it.”

When the letter from the Australian Ministry arrives for her, she places it at the bottom of her trunk. It is no use dwelling on things which cannot be changed. She tells her friends that she hasn’t heard anything yet.

She struggles with the Patronus Charm more than usual. It frustrates her.

“’Mione, you’re overthinking it,” Harry tries to help. “Just needs to be a strong memory.”

“I know!” Hermione explodes. “But everyone’s fucking gone!”

The room quiets. And she bolts. It is Susan that finds her first. Padma, Daphne, Ron and Harry find their way to her too. It is Harry that finally asks, because of course it is.

“I haven’t opened it,” she confesses. “If I open it, everything changes. If I open it and they are dead, it is my fault. If I open it and they cannot reverse it, it is my fault. If I open it and they can reverse it, they will know what happened, and it is my fault.” She closes her eyes. “It is my fault.”

They placate her with the same words they all placate each other with. It is not her fault. She kept them safe. She cannot control the actions of others. But they are just so very hard to believe.

In the end it is Padma who digs through her trunk to get the letter. Her parents have been located, safe. But it is still too early to tell if the curse can be reversed. They will continue to keep her updated. She reads and rereads the words. It is both more and less than what she dreams.

Her otter swims. Harry whoops.

“What do you miss about him?”

Malfoy glances around. But it is just the two of them at the library table again. He watches her carefully. “We used to play knights when we were children. He would share the cookies his mother sent him.” He pauses. Shrugs. “He was my friend.”

They all receive an invitation to the Ministry Yule Ball. Even Malfoy and Nott. Parkinson and Bullstrode. Harry grumbles. Ron looks put out. She wonders if they will make them speak again.

“You’ll have to make sure Seamus’s robes match yours, Hermione,” Parvati says. Watches her sister dodge a jinx from Susan. “I can help you if you’d like. We can all go shopping.” Daphne nods in agreement.

“Are we together?” she asks.

One leg is against his chest. One hand wraps around her calf, the other braces himself against the wall. Seamus pauses. Looks down to where they are joined. Raises an eyebrow. “Seem to be.” Thrusts once for emphasis.

She laughs. He turns serious. Moves her leg. Lowers himself closer to her. “Did you want to be?”

Shrugs. He knows her. They are friends. He knows her scars. She knows his. “Yeah.”

He huffs a laugh. “All right. Now that’s settled.” Kisses her neck. “Let’s celebrate, shall we?”

Being together is not any different than what they had been. She still wakes up next to him. Goes to sleep next to him. Fucks him. And everyone had already thought them together. Or that they just hadn’t acknowledged it yet.

They receive their NEWT exam schedules in late November. Three more weeks and then they will say goodbye to Hogwarts.

“What about Goyle?” Hermione asks.

Malfoy raises his eyes. “He’s in Azkaban.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m aware. Do you miss him?”

He watches her carefully. Nods. “At times.” He continues to answer her.

Seamus groans. She gags. He smooths his hands down her hair and guides her to her feet. “Best birthday present ever,” he mumbles against her lips.

The practice duels in Defense escalate. Professor Flitwick oversees them now after Hannah lands Ernie in the hospital wing. They rotate partners each session. Except for Malfoy and Nott. They stick close to each other.

Until Harry throws a jinx a Nott. Nott throws one back. And soon they are dueling.

Malfoy stands awkwardly. The first jinx Ron throws is weak. Malfoy stands there. Ron throws another. Still no reaction. Hermione wonders if this is the best thing to do.

She cannot hear the words Ron says. But Malfoy’s face flinches. His eyes harden. The jinx he throws catches Ron in mid-sentence. And soon they are dueling too.

“What did you say to him?” Hermione asks.

Ron flushes. Looks guilty. Leads her away from Harry. “I asked if he liked listening to you scream when Seamus fucks you.” She smacks him. He rubs his chest. Cringes. Keeps talking. “Told him he probably wasn’t able to get you screaming like that.” Hermione hits him again. And again. “Sorry ‘Mione.” He wraps her in a hug. “I figured he wouldn’t lash out unless he was angry.”

Daphne hits him when he tells her.

“You told Weasley?” Malfoy slides into the chair next to her in the library.

She looks over at him. He doesn’t look angry. Merely intrigued. She shrugs. “He’d sort of guessed already,” she answers. Narrows her eyes. “You know, from when you were crying and saying he saw me.”

He flushes. Focuses his eyes on the pattern on the table. “What about Potter?”

She shakes her head. He nods. “What did Voldemort say when he saw it?”

Malfoy flinches at the name. His arm spasms. “He, uh,” he coughs. Moves his eyes off her face. Coughs again. “Told me that I, um,” he pauses. Looks at her as if she really wants him to tell her. 

Hermione knows it was probably demeaning. The Snatchers described to her in detail what they would want to do her once they caught her. In front of the others. It is why her boys were so desperate to reach her. She nods encouragingly at him.

He closes his eyes. “He told me that I was doing it wrong. That you were the one who belonged on your knees. Asked if I was such a failure that I liked the taste of mud.”

She nods. It is what she expected. “What did you tell him?” the words just come out. She doesn’t plan them.

“Granger,” he chokes out. His eyes still closed. “Please,” he shakes his head. “I’m sorry,” he opens his eyes. His stare is unnerving. Eyes do not leave her face. “I’m sorry,” he repeats. “For everything I’ve ever said or done to you, watching Bellatrix,” he stumbles over the name. “I am sorry for a lot. But I am not sorry for you in fifth year.”

She flees from his words.

Her head falls back. Seamus bends his legs. She leans against them. One hand grips her thigh. The other rubs furiously against her. Hermione screams out her orgasm.

She falls forward. “More,” she begs. He obliges.

For the next two weeks she is able to avoid Malfoy. She spends her time with Harry or Ron or Susan, Daphne and Padma. Parvati is usually with her sister now too. She avoids the library. Has Seamus quiz her instead. He rewards her for perfect answers.

NEWT results will be available in mid-January.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tend to think with how much all of them went through, they would have some potentially unhealthy coping mechanisms involving sex and alcohol.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The ending keeps giving me difficulty and I completely revised it at one point.  
> Hope this brief glimpse into an alternate look has been enjoyable.

Beyond

They make their way back to Grimmauld. Daphne stays with Ron of course. Hermione is surprised at the staying power they seem to have. Ginny is only on winter break, but stays there too. A situation which sees the siblings clash repeatedly. Usually over nothing.

“Can you not read?” Ginny screams. “Those were my tin of cookies from mum!”

“If it’s in the kitchen, it’s fair fucking game!” Ron snaps back.

Harry tries to get them to settle. Until Daphne drags him away. “They’re siblings, they fight,” she explains.

Padma and Parvati go on a trip to India. Just the two sisters. Susan comes with Hermione to the graveyard again. She doesn’t see Seamus for a week. They don’t write. Because what would they write about?

The Ministry Yule Ball is everything that she expects. It is awkward. It is long. And it is filled with people who just want a piece of them. The Weasley family becomes a barrier. A wall of Weasley’s are a formidable thing. There is Bill and Fleur. Charlie. Percy. George. Ginny. Of course Mr and Mrs Weasley.

But there is also Daphne. And Susan. Tracey. Luna. Astoria. Seamus. Dean. Neville. Hannah. Ernie. Anthony. Blaise.

She doesn’t know when, but somehow Malfoy is pulled in with them too. Nott. Bullstrode. Parkinson.

And when they go back to Grimmauld, they all come too.

Hermione drags Seamus upstairs. They ignore the comments from their friends. She perches on the edge of her bed. Tugs his trousers down. He laughs. Flips her dress up. Moves her knickers aside. And pushes into her.

It is frenzied. Quick. But he moves, angles, until she screams his name. 

They are still fully dressed. So she stands up. Smooths her dress down. He pulls up his trousers. And they rejoin their friends. Daphne smirks at them. Susan rolls her eyes. Dean laughs.

She finds Malfoy in the upstairs drawing room. He stares at his name on the wall.

“Harry wants to destroy it,” she says.

“He should,” he agrees. Moves his eyes to her face. “My mother tried to write to Andromeda. She sent it back unopened. Suggested I try writing instead.”

“Bellatrix did murder her daughter,” Hermione reminds.

He nods. “I always used to wonder what it would be like to have more family when I was a child. I didn’t even know I had a cousin until I went to Hogwarts. Some of the older Slytherins mocked me for having a half-blood cousin in Hufflepuff.”

She feels anger course through her at the slight on her friend. “Tonks was an amazing witch! You should have been proud to call her cousin!” she hisses.

“I know.” His eyes move to a scorch mark on the wall.

In January, she and Neville join the team that Kingsley put together. There are five others with them. All of them older. Three of them are from Magical Law. One is a former Auror. The last is Marcus Flint.

It is a surprise to see Flint. He is there as part of his probation. He doesn’t talk to Hermione or the other muggleborn on the team. Or the Auror. He barely speaks to the other two. Surprisingly, it is Neville that he speaks to the most.

She knows that he is there because he has shown regret to the Wizangamot. But she does not see it.

They are to review laws, seek the public’s input, make recommendations. They evaluate, research, and liaise with other governments. Hermione finds herself fascinated with the way the Canadian muggle police and Aurors work together. They share information in a way that no other force does with its muggle counterpart.

NEWT results arrive. Hermione receives ten. Her boys each get seven. Daphne eight.

Padma and Parvati return in time for Parvati to start Auror training with the others. Padma starts at St Mungos, Tracey at the Ministry in Magical Creatures. They find out that Daphne never sent in her application to Gringotts.

It leads to a huge fight between her and Ron. He storms out. The crack of apparition almost instant when he hits the porch.

“He’s angry because I lied and said I did send it in.” Daphne’s face is red and splotchy from crying.

“Why did you lie?” Hermione lays next to her.

Daphne flips over. Looks at the ceiling. Sighs. “I don’t know. Everyone just kept asking and assuming. So I said I did. It was just this expectation. My mum works there. When I was ten I said I would too and somehow it just became what I was going to do.”

“He would understand that.”

“I know,” Daphne starts crying again. “He just kept talking about our future and what it was going to be for us. He mentioned our own place and what it would be like just us two. And I want that. I want that _so_ much! I’m just not sure I want Gringotts. I want time to think.”

In the end, Ron and Daphne make up. Loudly. And often. Seamus raises an eyebrow when he comes over. Then suggests they drown them out.

Harry lays his head down on the kitchen table. “I hate all of you.”

They all fall into a routine. Even Daphne. She starts a part-time job at Flourish and Botts. During the week they all work or train. On Saturdays, Grimmauld becomes a gathering place again.

Tracey and Susan bring Nott one night. He looks out of place but he stays. Chats politely with Hannah. Anthony. Then he comes the next week too. And the week after. Until he no longer looks out of place.

Ron regales Daphne with stories from Auror training. Harry piping in with comments too. Ron mentions that Seamus and Justin have somehow managed to blow up potions on four consecutive days. And Hermione realizes that she has no idea how training is going for Seamus.

She wonders about asking him. But then he curls his tongue in her. And this is so much more enjoyable.

Flint still has not spoken to her. But she is surprised by some of his ideas he mentions to Neville. He is the one to suggest a Quidditch house league at Hogwarts. Letting anyone that wants to play, play. And having children from all four houses on one team.

Spring arrives. Easter comes and goes. Ginny and Luna write less as they prepare for their own NEWT exams.

Padma goes on a date. She is unsure if there will be a second date. But she went on a date. And that is progress.

And then it’s the one year anniversary of the Battle. The Ministry plans a memorial. It is depressing. Awkward. And nobody knows quite how to act. They go to the Burrow after. Because the Weasley children will not leave their parents today. It is crowded but the love is palpable.

Hermione opens the letter that the Australian Ministry sent her. She had stuffed it in her drawer when it arrived the previous week.

It is Ron that finds her on the floor of her room.

“They are not sure that it can be reversed without permanently damaging their minds,” she sobs. Ron wraps his arms around her. Rocks her. “They’ve reached out to a Healer in Japan that has been doing some new research. But they just don’t know!” He runs a hand down her hair.

That is how Harry and Daphne find them. They join them on the floor.

Malfoy is at Grimmauld the following Saturday. Nott brings him. He has the skittish look to him again.

Seamus fucks her against the door to the library. Her legs around his waist. His mouth on her neck. He pants into her skin. Gathers his breath after.

“Seamus, you are my friend and I love you, I just don’t think,” she trails off.

He huffs a laugh. “’Mione, you are my friend and I love you, I just don’t think,” he repeats her words. Pulls back to look at her face. Smiles. “Friends?” She smiles. Nods. He smirks a little. “Friends who fuck occasionally?” he moves his hips against hers.

She laughs. Nods again. And rides him on the couch.

Malfoy is there again the next Saturday. Hermione watches Ron talk to him. Daphne scowls at his side. Susan is polite. And then he is there the next Saturday too.

“Why did you do it?” She finds him in the library.

He turns. Puts the book he holds on the shelf. Clears his throat. “My family.”

She waves her hand. “Not that,” she gestures to his arm. He flinches. She knows about that. It was all over his trial after all. “He asked you if you liked the taste of mud.” He cringes. “Did you? You kept doing it after all.”

He keeps his eyes on her face. “You’re not dirty Granger,” he says. She huffs. Rolls her eyes. She knows that. He shifts his feet. Eyes still on her. “I liked it,” he admits softly.

Hermione tilts her head. Takes a few more steps into the room. “Wasn’t I still dirty then for you though?”

“No,” he shakes his head. Watches as she sits on the couch. “You were confusing to me Granger. You did better than anyone else in class. Daphne, Blaise and Tracey liked you. And you were pretty. And you were Granger. And you let me touch you.”

She blames the firewhiskey. “Would you like to again?”

He freezes. Looks at her with an expression she can’t figure out. Darts his eyes to the open door. She waves her wand. It closes. “Aren’t you with Finnegan?”

They haven’t told anyone yet. They never told anyone they were together. Everyone just assumed. Hermione assumes their friends will just figure it out. “Weren’t you with Parkinson?” she asks instead.

He moves toward her. Kneels. “Are you sure?” he asks.

She places a leg over his shoulder. He watches her face. Places a hand on her thigh. Moves it along her skin. Pushes her skirt up. Tugs her knickers down. Leans in. She moans at the first feel of his tongue.

Her fingers tangle in his hair. He licks and sucks. She presses his face closer into her. And comes with a long groan.

“Pansy and I were always more off than on.” His head rests on her knee. Gray eyes watch her. “You weren’t a side for me.” She recalls the words he spat at Ron sixth year. “I’m sorry.”

His apology makes her angry. She shoves him with her feet. He falls backwards.

“Please tell me you at least had the decency to break up with Seamus first!” Daphne is furious. And disgusted.

“I’m not sure if they were every really together enough to be able to break up,” Ron says. Daphne rounds on him. He raises his hands. “I’m just saying.” Turns his head to Hermione. “’Mione?”

They are in their bedroom. Daphne and Ron are a package deal now. So she tells them both about what Malfoy did last night. Daphne has really leaned into her relationship and embraced the Weasley temper.

“We decided to just be friends,” she answers. Ron nods. Daphne shakes her head. Raises an eyebrow. “Who fuck occasionally,” she finishes.

Ron laughs. “I’m pretty sure that’s what you two always were.” Daphne rolls her eyes.

Hermione receives a letter from the Healer in Japan. She is optimistic about the chances. After all, Obliviate doesn’t actually take away memories. It merely hides them within the mind. They just need to be found again, she writes. And this was a variation of an Obliviation charm.

“What if they don’t forgive me?”

Harry wraps an arm around her. “They will,” he soothes.

The first time that Flint speaks to her, she almost drops her quill in shock. He asks for a text beside her. Even says please. She hands it to him. Neville’s eyes are wide.

She and Seamus still do shag occasionally. But it is nowhere near as often.

Nott continues to bring Malfoy on Saturdays. Susan and Tracey move in together. Padma goes on another date. Daphne and Ron have a pregnancy scare.

“I forgot to pick up the potion,” Daphne mumbles into the drawing room couch. “I thought it was next week.”

Hermione doesn’t think she has ever seen Ron look so frantic. He paces the room until Harry takes him outside. “What about the charm?” she asks.

“We stopped using it. Figured the potion was enough.”

It is just over a week before Daphne confirms that she is not pregnant. Hermione thinks it’s a little strange that the two of them celebrate by shagging. Harry agrees with her over pancakes.

Ginny and Luna complete their NEWT exams. The house at Grimmauld is full. When she sees Malfoy’s blond head, she assumes that Nott brought him again. But she does not see the brunette Slytherin anywhere. 

She finds Malfoy staring at the scorch mark in the drawing room. “Andromeda wrote me back.”

“What did she say?” she asks.

“She is not ready to speak to my mother, but she would like to meet me.” He turns to look at her. “She said she thinks I still have potential. Mother wants me to go.”

“Do you?” he jerks his head in a nod.

Padma pulls Hermione and Susan into Daphne and Ron’s bedroom. Ron yells. Daphne looks over her shoulder. Yelps, moves off him. The three girls get a flash of both of them before the sheet jumps to cover them. Daphne screams and gestures to the door.

“I shagged Theodore Nott,” Padma announces.

Daphne goes speechless. She almost lets go of the sheet covering her. Her mouth opens and closes. Susan’s eyes go wide. Hermione chokes on her drink.

Ron is the first to move. Wraps a blanket around his waist and gets up. “I’ll let you all talk.” Drops a kiss to the top of Padma’s head. “For what it’s worth, you deserve to be happy.” He closes the door behind him.

The words are barely out of his mouth before she starts crying. Susan and Hermione move to hug her. Daphne tugs at the sheet. Motions for them to sit.

“And?” Susan prompts.

“I feel guilty,” she confesses. Collapses beside Daphne. Susan starts to tell her that’s normal. Padma shakes her head. “I feel guilty for not feeling guilty,” she wails.

Hermione thinks that is progress. But it is a tough sell to Padma. She says she knows that in her head. It is her heart that is harder to convince. They fall asleep and Hermione only stirs when Parvati squeezes in next to her sister.

Daphne and Ron end up going on a double date with Padma and Nott. It goes better than expected and Padma continues to bring Nott around. Hermione thinks it’s strange that both Susan and Padma have now paired up with Slytherins.

Ginny and Hannah plan a joint birthday for Harry and Neville. It’s at Grimmauld of course, because everything now takes place there.

She finds Malfoy in the library again and wonders why he always slinks off to a room by himself.

“I take it you and Finnegan aren’t together anymore?” he asks. She nods, remembers seeing Seamus snogging Isabel outside earlier. “Was it because,” he gestures between the two of them. “Of last time here?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “We decided we were just friends before that.”

He clears his throat, looks a little uncomfortable. “But you and he still?”

His meaning is clear and she nods. When she sits down on the couch, he moves and kneels before her.

“Why do you want to do this?” she’s not sure why she asks.

He doesn’t pause in tugging her pants down. Just slips one leg out. “I told you why. My reasons have not changed in three years. They’ve just grown stronger. It’s you Granger.” Malfoy moves his mouth along her thigh. “Why do you?”

It seems to be a rhetorical question because he doesn’t wait for a response. And she twists his hair in her hands. He brings her to the brink twice before she moans “please Malfoy” and she falls apart.

She laughs at the smug look on his face.

“Tracey and I are getting married.” The ring that Susan shoves in their faces is a plain gold band with a ruby and sapphire intertwined. It is so quintessentially Susan.

Daphne squeals and knocks the two of them over in her excitement when she launches herself at them.

It is nearing the end of summer. Susan’s father hosts the official engagement party for them. But the next night, they have one at Grimmauld too. Padma has broken things off with Nott, but the short relationship seems to have done her good. She seems more at ease with the world.

Hermione finds Malfoy staring at the scorch mark on the wall again.

“Did you meet with Andromeda?”

He nods. “Yeah,” pauses briefly. “And my little cousin.”

She doesn’t know quite what to say after that. Harry knows Andromeda and Teddy better than her. She only knows them through him.

Daphne submits an application for a Transfiguration apprenticeship. And a Potions one. And Charms. Arirthmancy. Gringott’s curse-breaking. St Mungo’s. The Ministry.

“Fleur’s pregnant,” she says. “Now his mum just keeps eyeing us like we’re going to be next. I need to do something.”

Hermione, Padma and Daphne go dress shopping with Susan.

Malfoy continues to come to Grimmauld on Saturdays. A couple weeks before her birthday she finds him in the library again.

“Where’s Nott?” She hadn’t seen the other Slytherin anywhere.

“He’s away this weekend. Weasley told me it was okay if I came anyway.” He looks at her like he’s unsure.

She nods. “It’s fine,” she agrees. “Though you tend to hide a lot. It’s hard to find you.”

“You find me.”

“I do.” She smiles.

Malfoy smiles. It startles her. She has seen him smile so rarely. He usually smirks. 

He moves towards her. When he goes to pull her towards the couch by her hand, she resists. His hand loosens on hers as hers tightens on his. The smile drops. She blames the firewhiskey, because it is the easiest thing to blame, when she pulls him to her room.

His eyes are wide, taking in every part of her room. They grow wider when she pushes him to lay on the bed. Comically wide when she crawls over and reaches for the fastenings on his trousers. He swallows.

He is very still for it. She is used to some inadvertent hip bucking, especially after Seamus. But Malfoy is very still. His hands are clenched, bunching up the sheets of her bed.

He does moan though. She’s pretty sure she hears him swear and mumble her name. He is close to panting when he pushes back at her shoulders. She takes her mouth off him and finishes him with her hand.

It looks like he is on the verge of saying something, but closes his mouth instead. He tugs her pants and knickers down. Lays her down on her bed. He doesn’t tease her this time. After the second time she is screaming on his tongue, she pushes his head away.

Hermione drags him up to her. She assumes he is hard again. In her experiences, that was enough time to go again. She knows she cannot continue to blame firewhiskey, so she chooses not to think too much on her reasons. Just hooks a leg over his. Angles her hips.

Malfoy breathes her name – her _first_ name – against the skin of her neck when he pushes inside her. She is surprised when the sex reminds her of sex with Viktor. He moves over her, switches angles, until she gasps his name. 

He peers down at her. “Can you call me Draco?” His face is pleading.

It seems like a reasonable request during sex. She nods. “Draco.”

She huffs a laugh afterwards when she realizes that they still have on their shirts. And are only naked from the waist down. She rolls to her side and undoes the buttons on his shirt.

He stops her when she goes to push it off him. “I’ve seen it before,” she argues. 

He relents. And there it is. It is faded. Doesn’t look as bad as when Ron pulled his sleeve down in sixth year. Looks more like an old muggle tattoo than the mark of a dark wizard. Runs her fingers across it. She goes to lift her own shirt, but he moves and does it for her.

His fingers trace the scar on her chest. “Dolohov.” He nods.

Then his thumb rubs across the slur on her arm. “I’m sorry,” he looks broken. Like when her and Harry saw him last summer at his home.

Last time he apologized she got angry, so she is surprised at herself when she just shakes her head. “It wasn’t your fault Malfoy. Stop apologizing.”

He looks like he is about to say something else. So Hermione grasps the side of his head and pulls him down to her. His lips are softer than she thought they would be. She moves on top of him. “Draco,” he reminds her and she nods.

Ron grumbles. Pulls the blanket over his head. She has just announced she had sex with Malfoy. “Yeah, we heard you guys ‘Mione.”

Daphne looks faintly nauseated. “We did hear you,” she confirms.

Padma, Susan and Tracey shake their heads. “We didn’t!”

More grumbling from Ron. “Why are you having this conversation here? What’s wrong with your room?”

“Malfoy is still sleeping in my room. I found Susan and Tracey in the library. Padma was in the chair in the living room. This is the only room that works.”

“He’s probably sleeping because it’s way too early in the fucking morning. We should all be sleeping!”

“Shh,” Daphne pats his back.

When she goes back to her room, Malfoy is awake. He is sitting on the edge of the bed. He looks over like he doesn’t know what he should be doing. Looks relieved when she stands in front of him. His hands reach to grasp at her hips when she kisses him.

Harry waves when Malfoy follows her down the stairs. Ginny mumbles that they woke up the house this morning.

Sex with Malfoy continues into the fall. He stays most weekends, brings over food during the week when she has a long day. There are times she comes home to find him playing a game of chess with Ron. Once she found him, Harry and Ginny talking Quidditch. Daphne is polite.

Hermione pushes him back so that he is sitting on the floor, arms behind him. She slides off the couch. They are in the library after he pulled her in. Her knickers are already off, so she just tugs his trousers down a bit and then sinks down.

He falls back to lie fully on the floor. Cups her head to bring her down for a kiss. And then anchors his feet and thrusts up into her until she is gasping. “Draco,” she throws her head back. He wraps an arm around her when he comes, securing her against him. His mouth moves in soundless words against her neck.

“I’m not going to shag Seamus.” She has noticed the pattern. Every time Seamus is here, Malfoy takes her somewhere and puts his head between her legs until she screams his name.

Her head is laying on his chest so she cannot see his face. But his arms tighten around her. 

Padma comes with her to Japan. The Healer is a tiny woman in her late-thirties. She smiles at them and then talks of her research and the progress with her parents. She tells them that it has been slow going but seems successful so far.

And Hermione believes her because when she walks into the room, they _know_ her. _Her parents know her._

“Hermione.” Her mother cradles her head against her chest. Hermione sobs against her. They don’t have all of their memories back yet, but they recognize her and they love her.

Her father rubs her back. Arms encircling his wife and daughter. It has been close to three years since she has last hugged her parents and she never wants to let them go.

They stay in Japan for two weeks. Hermione discovers that while her parents know her and know that she has magic. They do not yet know the name of her school or the details of their dental practice. When they do leave, the Healer promises to keep her updated as to the continuing progress.

Susan and Tracey’s wedding is in mid-December. And it is fast approaching. She, Daphne and Padma are standing up with Susan of course. But she is still thinking of something. And she rests her head on Malfoy’s shoulder. Traces a finger along his skin. His arm on her back.

“Did you want me to help you pick out a robe for Susan and Tracey’s wedding? My dress is blue.”

His arm tightens around her. “Yeah?” his voice is soft and she nods. “You won’t mind being seen with me?”

She rolls her eyes. She’s pretty sure everyone has already heard them. Nobody bats an eye anymore when they disappear upstairs together. “Draco, I think-“

But she is not able to get out the rest of her thoughts. Because he kisses her. It is intense like he is pouring everything into her. He moves so that he is over her. His lips move across her skin.

Susan looks absolutely stunning. Her red hair curls in soft ringlets framing her face. The dress she wears is off-white with long glittering sleeves and a gown that billows out just a bit at the waist. A small train follows her. But what truly makes her stunning is the grin on her face.

The four of them stand in a circle. Susan’s father will be along shortly and then it will be time.

Padma passes a glass of champagne to each of them. She smiles. “I’m so happy for you Susan!” Raises her glass in a toast. Throws it back quickly then has a small laughing fit as she coughs.

Daphne nods in agreement. Glances at the glass. Tentatively takes a small sip. “I still can’t believe that you’re actually getting married!”

Susan brings them all into a giant hug. “Thanks for being here! I am so grateful that we were the leftover students in Ancient Runes third year!”

Hermione laughs. “I love you girls.” So was she.


End file.
